Except for brief scenes in a restaurant or roadside park, the whole film is set inside the bus as a random group of black men from the L.A. area travel together to D.C. for the million man march. As they arrive old Jeremiah (Ossie Davis) has a heart attack, they hospitalize him, he does not survive, and all the men on that bus miss the march as they wait for Jeremiah. TV broadcast scenes of the "march" are shown, however. So, the film is not really about the march, but the relationship that develops among these men as they travel.
Two of them are gay lovers about to split up. Another two are father and son, handcuffed together by court order because the son had stolen money from a store. One was a very light skinned man, a cop, whose mother is white, and whose black father had been a cop and was killed by black gang members. One man was a former gang member who now counsels "kids at risk". At one point the cop told the former gang member that he would see that he got his due for admitting to have killed a number of innocent people, but the film did not provide any resolution of that point.
I could go on and describe the other characters, but the point is, they had all quite different stories, sometimes difficultly opposing points of views about sensitive issues, but they all needed to get along, learn to accept each other. The overall "message" of their conversations is, the black man must quit seeking blame for past problems and focus on being a better person and work hard to accomplish things.
I rate the film "7" of 10. Even though I am not a black man I found the whole film captivating. There were a few real rough spots, I thought, but overall a worthwhile film.
Two of them are gay lovers about to split up. Another two are father and son, handcuffed together by court order because the son had stolen money from a store. One was a very light skinned man, a cop, whose mother is white, and whose black father had been a cop and was killed by black gang members. One man was a former gang member who now counsels "kids at risk". At one point the cop told the former gang member that he would see that he got his due for admitting to have killed a number of innocent people, but the film did not provide any resolution of that point.
I could go on and describe the other characters, but the point is, they had all quite different stories, sometimes difficultly opposing points of views about sensitive issues, but they all needed to get along, learn to accept each other. The overall "message" of their conversations is, the black man must quit seeking blame for past problems and focus on being a better person and work hard to accomplish things.
I rate the film "7" of 10. Even though I am not a black man I found the whole film captivating. There were a few real rough spots, I thought, but overall a worthwhile film.